I might have to start posting these art-blog roundups on the weekends too... these Monday updates are outa control...

• Airbrushed Zippy the Pinhead art (artist unknown)! Posting this on Facebook, Bill Griffith says "This is the 2-page spread ad for the 'Zippy Movie' from Variety magazine, 3/29/90. The ad was taken out by the Aspen Film Society (at that time they were the producers of the movie) in hopes of attracting a studio/distributor. Are we in turnaround yet?" More about it (and the likewise never-to-be Zippy TV show series) here

• Check out all the artwork from the Covered art show here on the Secret Headquarters Flickr page — I'm pretty sure I haven't featured this Johnny Ryan piece on Flog before — and organizer/curator Robert Goodin has a report and photos from the opening on his blog

• Michael Kupperman awards the Oscar for best Oscar

• John Hankiewicz does Ditko , plus another sketchbook page

• A 1994 minicomic by Frank Santoro & Jon Good

• Jewelry and accessories "made from 100% genuine doll" by Dame Darcy

• Several new pieces by Richard Sala available at Comic Art Collective or direct via Richard's blog

• Detail of a mid-1990s Jim Flora illustration

• The conclusion of Gabrielle Bell's New York story

• Mark Kalesniko is really channeling Egon Schiele in this one

• Yowie! Sergio Ponchione presents a full-color Grotesque story from the pages of the new issue of Linus

• This one from Renee French is even creepier as the follow-up to this one

• Ectopiary page 14 and a Cochlea and Eustachia one-pager from Hans Rickheit

• More from "Tales of Abstraction House" by Derek Van Gieson

• Three more structures by Tom Kaczynski: "incoherent amalgamation," "basalt garden" and, above, "The Tomb of Jack Kirby"

• More new Jordan Crane at What Things Do

Good grief, all you art bloggers sure stay busy over the weekends...

• Man, remember the awesome comics that Tower Records' Pulse magazine ran back in the 1990s, like this one from Frank Santoro?

• A piece by Richard Sala for an Oz-themed art show at Gallery Meltdown in L.A. which opened on Saturday (Steven Weissman's in it too)

• Speaking of Steven Weissman, here are some ideas he's working on

• Nautical sketches circa 1950s by Jim Flora

• Two from Jim Blanchard, who describes the commissioned drawing at top as "Definitely the high point of my art career so far"; at bottom, a record cover (click through for even more groovy lettering on the back cover)

• A series of mother-with-child sketches by Mark Kalesniko

• God damn, Renee French

• Alain Saint-Ogan fan art and "F" is for Fielder by Kevin Huizenga

• This and two more sketchbook spreads by Anders Nilsen

• Hans Rickheit's Ectopiary page 13, plus a singing monkey

• The continuation of a New York Lucky story by Gabrielle Bell

• Nate Neal sneaks a guy into this page of Derek Van Gieson's story

• More new Jordan Crane at What Things Do

• Talk about a blockhead (haw haw): I'm Learning to Share! shares a Charles M. Schulz rarity, Two-by-Fours (via Robot 6)

Click to see more better:

• A recent commission by Richard Sala

• Marco Corona draws a platypus for the launch of a new magazine by that name

• More sketches (above) and the resulting finished watercolor (not shown here) by Mark Kalesniko

• Steve Brodner's New Yorker ode to the Village Vanguard (with lots of preparatory sketches)

Mark Kalesniko has started a new art blog where so far he's been posting watercolor sketches of stylish girls such as this. Hopefully we'll be seeing glimpses of his new Fantagraphics graphic novel Freeway (scheduled for Summer 2010 release), and of course we'll point you toward future updates in our "Things to see" posts.

• Review: Comic Book Resources gives Sam's Strip 4 out of 5 stars and calls it "a must for any fans of comic strips"

• Review: Comics Worth Reading takes on Supermen!

• Review: Rob Clough examines Mome Vol. 13

• Review: Parka Blogs checks out Beasts! Book 2

• Profile: Paul Gravett examines (and recommends) the work of Mark Kalesniko in an article which also appears in Comics International

• Blurb: Jared Axelrod, applying his "10 Rules of Quality Superhero Fiction," declares Jaime Hernandez's story in Love and Rockets: New Stories #1 "one of the best superhero comics of the past year"

• Blurb: John Whitlock recommends our Popeye books

• Blurb: The Geek Curmudgeon (a.k.a. Rick Klaw) previews Humbug, Boody and Supermen!

• Blurb: Books Are People, Too (a.k.a. Russ Kick) also previews Humbug

• Blurb: Rod McKie describes how comics by Daniel Clowes, Peter Bagge and the Hernandez Brothers helped him get through a health crisis

• Video: Slick Rivera visits Larry Reid at the Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery and finds out where the good stuff is stashed (found via Frank magazine [not to be confused with our Frank])

• Interview: Vice talks to Johnny Ryan and a couple of the other funny cartoonists who are in Kramer's Ergot #7

• Interview: If you're curious about new Mome contributor Hernán Migoya, and speak Spanish, LaNuez has a couple of video interview clips for you (via Entrecomics)

• Things to see: On his blog, Derek Van Gieson previews his work in the just-released Mome Vol. 14 (and keep exploring for a teaser of Mome Vol. 15)

• Things to see: On his blog, Dash Shaw presents a Bottomless Belly Button ex libris plate he created for French comics shop Super Heros (you may also have seen Jason Miles's photo of Dash at Super Heros here on Flog recently)

• Things to see: Boing Boing Gadgets presents a blast from future past, Frank Thorne style

• Things to see: Is an excuse needed to scan and share Seth's cover designs for The Complete Peanuts? The Comics Reporter thinks not

• NPR recommends Mark Kalesniko's Mail Order Bride to "see you through your turkey coma"

• Kevin Church describes John Kerschbaum's Petey & Pussy as "sort of a Chuck Jones retelling of The Aristocrats"

• I Love Rob Liefeld looks at Ganges #2 by Kevin Huizenga

• Pol Culture examines Popeye Vol. 3 by E.C. Segar

• The Comics Reporter looks at The Lagoon by Lilli Carré

• Wart might be calling Bottomless Belly Button by Dash Shaw the best graphic novel of the year; the Google translation from French is a little confusing... but they certainly like it

• Tom Kaczynski's "Doodle Dump"

Every day in July we're spotlighting books from our month-long Hidden Gems Sale, wherein we're featuring some of our under-the-radar backlist titles and encouraging you to try them by offering them at a nice discount of 25% off!

The artist we're featuring today, Mark Kalesniko, got widely noticed for his series Alex, which was later collected in a graphic novel of the same name. Today we're putting the spotlight on three of his earlier, lesser-known titles:

S.O.S.

Before Alex, Kalesniko made S.O.S., a lyrical allegorical comic with a beautiful Asian-American protagonist. The story details how Chloe slowly finds her identity and achieves independence and empowerment while literally "adrift on the ocean" on a small sailboat beset by a huge, ravenous shark. S.O.S. is a metaphorical one-shot, a dramatic short subject told entirely in pantomime. Kalesniko brilliantly unveils the conflicts within Chloe — between tradition and modernity, between the safety of her chinese family and the unfamiliar dangers of the Western world. The story is told in ink, collage, and wash, introducing to comics the exciting panel-to-panel "camerawork" which Kalesniko has refined into an assured mastery.

24-page black & white 6.75" x 10.25" comic book
regularly $2.75 • ON SALE $2.06
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Mail Order Bride

Monty, a Canadian comic-and-toy-shop owner and a pathetic 39-year-old virgin, expects his Asian mail-order bride Kyung Soo to fulfil his female Asian fantasy stereotypes: obedient, hardworking and loyal. Tall and accentless, Kyung turns out to be much more complex than Monte is willing to accept. This sharp and affecting look at their prickly relationship is told over 264 elegant, touching pages in this original graphic novel by Disney animator Mark Kalesniko. Kalesniko adroitly juxtaposes Monty's non-sexual, juvenile obsessions with his objectification of his bride, drawing a direct line between loneliness, consumerism, and how the need for order in one's life compromises the approach to matters of the heart.

264-page black & white 8" x 11" softcover
regularly $19.95 • ON SALE $14.96
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Why Did Pete Duel Kill Himself?

Before the astonishing Mail Order Bride, Kalesniko created this equally fine work of comic art. He combines stylish graphics and a keen eye for the perspective of a child in his first book-length graphic novel. Here, the unexpected suicide of a young, marginally successful actor sets the tone for this examination of the childhood of Alex Kalienka. Petty humiliations, minor injuries, small betrayals — the overall gradual degradation of growing up different provides a stunning glimpse at the existential nature of life.

96-page black & white 7" x 10" softcover
regularly $8.95 • ON SALE $6.71
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